Want to be wrecked? Consider what's going on in this broken world.
9 million people die every year from starvation.
40 million people are living with AIDS.
2 million girls between the ages of 5 and 15 are put into the commerical sex market every year.
Out of the 18 million women living with HIV/AIDS, 14 million of them live in Sub-Sahara Africa.
1 out of 3 women have experienced rape or sexual assault.
In South Africa, a women is raped on average every 17 seconds.
There are 1 billion people who are illiterate; 2/3 are women.
There are 27 million modern-slaves.
There are 218 million child laborers between the ages of 5 and 17.
In the United States, "the land of the free," 300,000 children have been put into the sex trafficking industry.
In the words of Popeye, "I've had all i can stands, i can't stands it no more."
How are we ever bored with our lives as believers when we read this and realize that God called us to bring His love and hope to the broken?
I got pretty blown up by my Savior this week. i wasn't asking to be broken, i wasn't asking for some radical transformation, i was just asking for JESUS. He has brought new friends into my life who have spoke such truth and love into my life with their passion for serving Jesus that it was impossible not to experience God in new ways. Lately He had becoming in a whisper, and all of a sudden He came in the form of a baseball bat...well, not literally of course. But He brought me face to face with His broken heart for injustice. As I sat on the floor of the prayer room, one of the worship leaders came up to be, and spoke to me exactly what i had been thinking, "You want to feel God's love and see His heart, huh?" Talk about perfect timing. The tears started flowing, as this had been the one thing I was asking God for. He proceeded to tell me the word God had given him for me, "Guess what? Are you prepared to have God send you to nations you haven't even dreamed of yet? Because He's going to. You will be faced with broken people searching for the hope of a Savior, and with tear filled eyes, God will use you, not from your own knowledge, But with His beauty and love, to show them the truth." Talk about being broken when you're not prepared for it. We began praying, and the worship leader asked me to pray for the things that are breaking my heart. By this point, i'm sobbing so loud, i don't think anything that makes sense is going to come out. Then all of a sudden, God gives me a picture, and it showed me a view into His broken heart for the lost. I see the Sahara Desert with its dry cracked land, and there is a family standing with tears in their eyes, begging for love. They're asking, "What do we need to do to receive God's love?" BAM. I realize that before I can go tell the broken about Jesus' unfailing love, i first must receive it. That's all i have to do: RECEIVE. Jesus has called us to love Him, and then go to the nations, our schools, work, and show people that love. I'm learning to see God's heart for people. And by seeing His heart, i am learning these truths in my life about walking out my faith, being stretched, and ultimately, becoming the bride of Christ. One of my new favorite songs says this line: there's gonna be a wedding, it's the reason that i'm living, to marry the Lord. In order to fall in love with my future husband, i have to first be so fully dedicated to Jesus! So here I am, 5 weeks into lecture phase, learning to fall TRULY in love with Jesus, so others can fall in love with Jesus, while remembering to be still in His presence to hear His voice, and realizing that I may be called to a life of missions. Yeah, He broke me and i wasn't prepared. But it is SO GOOD. Such a time is this! I never again want to be lukewarm now that I have experienced the greatness and pure goodness of my Savior. I will not settle for anything less than the fullness of Christ. He's asking for everything. So, i'm simply saying, take it all. Because i know whatever God has prepared for my life is 100 million times better than anything I could ever dream of. I've finally found where I belong. Faith like a child--that's what I need.
Jeremiah 33:3,
"Call to me, and I will answer and tell you great
and unsearchable things you do not know."